Welcome to the supplemental post for Episode 26 of the Victory Kitchen Podcast! In this episode we talked about the housing plight of Americans before and during WWII and the cramped housing situations that they dealt with. This in turn affected many housewives and the way that they were able to cook. This included the use of two burner stoves, hot plates, portable ovens, and other small appliances.
A big thank you to my good friend Kelsey Lonie for sharing this Canadian Maclean's article with me!
The following ad for this camper trailer is being advertised as a comfy "home away from home" vacation get away, but the reality is that many people used camper trailers like this as temporary and semi-permanent housing during the war.
I mentioned this article from the August 17, 1942 Life magazine about Detroit housing. The images are definitely worth taking a look at.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A big thanks to Jesse Williams for his interview and for providing the following photographs.
The following original photographs from Oak Ridge were taken by Ed Westcott, the only person allowed to have a camera inside the top secret city. See my resources below for a link to a page all about his work. A huge thank you to Jesse Williams for sharing these photos with me! Some of these, especially the ones of the trailers and trailer camps, are more difficult to find.
Cookbook Feature was Ida Bailey Allen’s Double-Quick Cooking for Part-Time Homemakers. I chose this book because it had a special section talking about cooking in small spaces and on hot plates. Most cookbooks from this time period don’t even discuss this cooking situation!
The recipe I tried was the Cake Crumb Pudding. It can alternatively use cookie crumbs. I really enjoyed the cake version. You can use any cake. I used a wartime recipe for Creole Spice Cake. I think a wartime chocolate cake would lend itself really well to this recipe too. I served it along with some delicious British Devon custard (Ambrosia brand - imported). Any egg-based custard would taste great with this pudding dish.
As noted in my episode, I recommend making this recipe using a wartime cake or cookie recipe. Modern cake and cookie recipes use far too much sugar and fats and using them for this pudding recipe would change the consistency and overall end result.
RESOURCES
Websites:
New York’s Dirty Little Secret: Apartment Kitchens
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Kattie Strickland
The Photography of Ed Westcott
Sojourner Truth Project
Books/Magazines:
Double-Quick Cooking for the Part-Time Homemaker by Ida Bailey Allen. M. Barrows & Company, New York. 1943.
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Cooking Behind the Fence: Recipes and recollections from the Oak Ridge ‘43 Club. Oak Ridge Heritage & Preservation Association, 2013.
Suds in Your Eye by Mary Laswell, 1946. (This book has a great companion cookbook called One-Armed Cookery also by Mary Laswell.)
A Tower of Steel by Josephine Lawrence, 1943.
Since You Went Away by Margaret Buell Wilder, 1944.
Life. July 28, 1941.
Life. August 17, 1942.
Maclean's Magazine. June 1, 1943.
Woman’s Home Companion. July 1942.
Images:
Mr. and Mrs. Wicks. Mr. Wicks is employed at the Ford bomber plant near Ypsilanti. They are from Flint, Michigan. They share a tent and a trailer with another family and single man in Edgewater Park near the bomber plant. Library of Congress, August 1941.
Son of Mr. Nichols, defense worker from Cass City, Michigan now living in a trailer at Edgewater Park near Ypsilanti, Michigan. Mr. Nichols works in the Ford bomber plant. Library of Congress, August 1941.
Edgewater Park trailer camp near the Ford bomber plant. Ypsilanti, Michigan. Library of Congress, August 1941.
Guests of trailer park playing Chinese checkers outside their trailer home. Sarasota trailer park, Sarasota, Florida. Office of War Information. Library of Congress, January 1941.
Thank you to Jesse Williams for sharing his personal photographs and the photos taken by Ed Westcott.